Freecom Data Tank GateWay WLAN 2TB review

Freecom's Data Tank GateWay is a network-attached storage (NAS) device with a built-in wireless router.

It comes with two 1TB hard disks, which you can configure as either a RAID 0 or RAID 1 array. In RAID 0 mode, 2TB of storage is available but if a disk fails you'll lose all your data. In RAID 1 (mirroring) mode, only 1TB of storage is available. Sadly, the disks aren't mounted in removable trays, so you'd have to send the Data Tank to Freecom for repair instead of just swapping out the failed disk.

The wireless router is a basic 802.11g model. It has four Gigabit Ethernet ports but no ADSL modem, so you'll have to plug in a separate modem if you have ADSL broadband. It has very few stand-out routing features: just MAC address filtering, an SPI firewall and a DMZ for placing a computer in front of the firewall. There's WPA2 wireless security and support for Dynamic DNS services, so you can access the web interface using a memorable domain name instead of a constantly changing IP address. You won't find a Quality of Service (QoS) facility, but the two antennas are detachable.

The Data Tank's discovery utility and logically organised web-configuration interface make setup easy. Creating user accounts and assigning them to groups with different access privileges is quick and simple. The discovery utility helps map your shared folders to a drive letter and guides you through setting up the print server.

Performance was reasonably quick when copying both large and small files, in RAID 0 or 1. Thecus's N3200 was even faster when transferring large files, though. We had no trouble using the Data Tank to share a USB laser printer or a hard disk across our Gigabit Ethernet network.

The Data Tank can download files over BitTorrent without the aid of a computer, but downloads can only be managed from the web configuration interface with the administrator's password. TwonkyMedia's UPnP media server plug-in is included. A DVD movie stored on the Data Tank played back smoothly with a network media player but, as with Synology's DS408, there was jerkiness when skipping DVD chapters.

As with almost every NAS device we've seen, the Data Tank can be configured as an FTP server so you can access your files remotely over the internet. Files can also be accessed through an SSL-encrypted web interface.

The Data Tank is good value at 23p per gigabyte, but the usefulness of its RAID support is diminished by its lack of easily removable disks. Thecus's 1.5TB N3200 may not have quite as much storage but its quicker performance and removable trays make it a better NAS. However, if you'll use the Freecom's router, it's not a bad choice.

Author: Alan Lu